422. Mystic Popup Bar 쌍갑포차 (2020) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Yook Sung Jae, Choi Won Young

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+

Oh my heart, this show was so good! The feels! Not just for the main plot and characters, but feels for all the people whose grudges they settled. It was just so sweet and funny! It's about a kid who has the power to open people's hearts. This means that when anyone touches him, they start spilling the beans, all their inner emotions, and he has to deal with their emotional dump on him. But that also means that anyone he tries to date will do the same, so all he wants is to be loved, or a family. Because he was abandoned by his parents, real and adopted, for the same reason. Then he meets the two owners of a pop-up tent bar, who specialize in settling grudges. Wol Ju's punishment for her past sins is to settle the grudges of like 10,000 (or was it 100,000?) people before her 500 years of punishment are up. She does this through dreams with the help of some water from the afterlife that helps her bridge the gap between the two worlds. She is assisted by Manager Gwi, who is supposed to be supervising her, but is more like helping her while getting bossed around. Kang Bae is enlisted to help them, since he can get people to open up so easily, because time is running short.

Korean Movie Night: My Sister, the Pig Lady 돼지 같은 여자 (2015) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Lee Jong Hyuk, Choi Yeo Jin, Park Jin Ju

Movie rating: 6/10     Neck score: A

Maybe because I loved Go, Pig Lady so much, I was really interested in this one. Also, I love the entire cast, so I had high expectations. It is slated as a romantic comedy, and while it did have some comedic elements, I would not say that it is a comedy. Really most of the comedy was trying too hard, so it fell a bit flat, or it was the painful, black sort of comedy that you laugh, but also want to cry. Like the scene where the two drunk girls crash their scooter into the pig pen. Funny, but not. It's a tragedy, really. What it should be called is how an awesome girl's life was ruined by falling for the wrong man, or how three girls fighting over one douche-bag is always a bad idea. Sisters over misters, girls. Come on!

I guess you could say this show is painfully funny at times, because it really does capture what life in a small town is like. And this town is way too small. It's either on an island or a tiny coastal town (I don't remember), but it is even further shrinking because the main industry, silverfish fishing, is in decline because all the fish have disappeared. Along with them, all the young people. Especially the young men. This leaves the town with only one eligible bachelor and three girls to fight over him. That is just a recipe for disaster. On top of that, Jae Hwa (Hwang Jung Eum) has become the breadwinner of her falling apart family and she is putting her dreams on her pigs to save them.

312. The Undateables 훈남정음 (2018) Korean

Namgoong Min, Hwang Jung Eum, Choi Tae Joon, Oh Yoon Ah, Jo Dal Hwan, Jung Moon Sung

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+++

And another one where I wasn't sure how I felt about it and it exceeded my expectations. But maybe in reverse? I was excited about it, but then I kept hearing other people not being into it, but my love for both Namgoong Min and Hwang Jung Eum made me start it anyway, and it was just what I needed. Curdy and I watched it together and loved pretty much every minute of it. There were a couple of spots where we were worried, but it was never bad and had lots of great moments, and lots of couples to love.

209. Lucky Romance 운빨로맨스 (2016) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Ryu Jun Yeol, Lee Soo Hyuk, Lee Chung Ah

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A++

All the points in this drama go to Ryu Jun Yeol for being flipping adorable.  Without that adorableness, this show might have fallen flat on its face.  I love Hwang Jung Eum, but her character was of a person who had an overactive guilt complex which made her think everything was her fault, making her a self-sacrificing coward.  That makes for a frustrating plot.  However, she and Ryu Jun Yeol had excellent chemistry and we totally adorable when the plot wasn't being frustrating.  He just made his typical genius with issues character so lovable and real that you couldn't help but love him.  Also, all the other characters in the show were pretty likable.  I especially had to love Chicken Ahjussi.  How could Jung In Gi play such a cute ahjussi in this one and such an evil detective in Squad 38?  At the same time!?!  He's amazing, that's how.  Hyun Bin's name, haha.  Amy's (Lee Chung Ah) bad jokes.  Lee Soo Hyuk just looking way too hot even when we were screaming out: "Go away, Gary!"  Seriously, those 2nd lead peeps were as annoying as heck sometimes, because that girl was already ready to run like a scared rabbit, and then they tried their darndest to mess them up when they never had a chance.  That's what made it all the better, they literally never had a chance.  Even though she kept trying to run and hide thinking she'd ruin everyone's life, she consistently loved him and would be adorable around him too.  So really it was pretty consistently good until the end, because our couple was in love like the whole time and being adorable all the time.  Then the second to last episode was super draggy so it was boring, but not bad.  Then they solved everything really quickly, which made it unbelievable, but whatever, it was a happy and good ending, so I'll forgive it, because it was adorable.  I couldn't help but grin stupidly.  He said "yay!" which is the most adorable thing in the universe.  Like I said, Ryu Jun Yeol makes everything better.  Also, we got to see that stupid shaman dude get some comeuppance.  He's probably one of the only peeps we really hated.  Him, and how she wore pants under all her maxi skirts.  What the heck was that fashion choice?  That was a nothing choice.  Her poor legs must have been so hot.

173. She Was Pretty 그녀는 예뻤다 (2015) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Park Seo Joon, Go Joon Hee, Choi Siwon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

This drama was just fun.  I had a lot of fun watching it, even if there were gaping holes at times.  Like, it bothered me at first that they had Seo Joon come off as such a jerk-faced butt head at first.  That seemed to be way out of character for him.  Even with stress and misunderstandings as an excuse.  But they made up for it in a big way.  By the end, they were one of my favorite couples of all time.  What a cute OTP.  I really had second lead syndrome for Siwon, especially when he was making all those amazing faces.  So much fun!  I also loved the friendship between Hye Jin (Hwang Jung Eum) and Ha Ri (Go Joon Hee).  We see so many bromances that it was refreshing to see a... what is the word for that?  Womance?  Yeah, something like that.  I shipped that friendship.  As frustrating as it was, I liked that they had the relationship grow before he knew who she was.  That made it more real and feely when he finally found out.  Then I could ship the OTP like crazy.  I liked how they showed the level of understanding between our main couple that made them perfect for each other and helped us (well me anyway) get over Siwon.  I loved Siwon to the end, but I knew that he was just friends material, because there was that level of knowing and understanding that was missing.  That might be why I loved it so much.  There was no bitca and no evil second male lead.  I loved everyone in the whole show.  When Ha Ri started falling for Seong Joon, I was worried for her because she was going to get hurt, and the guilt she was feeling, yeah no bitca there, just her being stupid.  And Siwon was like the nicest (and goofiest) guy on the planet who saw her beauty from the start.  Cute!  Although, I did think that his part was too drawn out and mopey at the end.  That was a bit boring.  I even cared about the silly side romance between Gold Digger and Happy Boy.  Anyway, no, it's not perfect, but it's fun.  And I have to give it major props for avoiding some of the major tropes, such as prolonged noble idiocy, bitcas, one year time jumps (with long distance relationships that magically last even when they lose contact), and makeovers that last forever.  They touched on all of them, but twisted them for the better.  Bravo!

135. Kill Me, Heal Me 킬미,힐미 (2015) Korean

Ji Sung, Hwang Jung Eum, Park Seo Joon, Oh Min Seok, Kim Yoo Ri

Drama Rating:  7/10    Neck Score: A+

Ok, while this was completely makjang with the whole set up- I mean the birth secrets and corporate drama were off the charts- this was completely enjoyable to watch.  It's probably all Ji Sung.  I know it is.  Park Seo Joon was good too, even if he had to be the annoying oppa.  But Ji Sung!  He was amazing!  How he played every character with perfect emotion!  Right down to those eyes which they had to emphasize so much (Ji Sung does have super gorgeous eyes).  What I liked best was that it was always exciting and didn't make me want to chew my arm off ever.  Each of the multiple personalities were so lovable (I'll be honest and admit that I was also one of the many who were swept away by Shin Se Gi's animal charisma), so much so that when they all went away at the end I cried!  I was watching it at like 2am and was therefore more susceptible to tears, but still, it was touching.  Not a super huge fan of Hwang Jung Eum.  She can overact at times.  Usually in the "comedy" roles.  She was annoying as heck at the beginning, but I think she mellowed out a bit when the melodrama serious stuff rolled in.  I actually was fine with her at the end.  Anyways, yes there are lots of ridiculous and probably psychologically unsound things, but they managed to make it seem a little more plausible than other similarly DID themed shows that might have happened at the same time, so it was hard not to compare... I did try, but I just liked this one better.  Like a million times better (I still love you Hyun Bin!).  Even if some problems seemed to be magically wrapped up at the end... they were the less important ones so I was glad they weren't dragged out at least.  And can I just saw that Ji Sung's jaw line makes me very happy.  It's so sexy!

28. Full House, Take 2 풀하우스 테이크 2 (2012) Korean

No Min Woo, Park Ki Woong, Hwang Jung Eum

Drama Rating: 5/10      Neck Score: A++

This show is a guilty, guilty pleasure.  I was so excited to watch each episode, but I also admit that this is a silly, dumb show.  But it does have two very, very sexy necks.  Both No Min Woo (who makes my top 10 sexy necks) and Park Ki Woong have great necks, and are also otherwise super hot.  But everyone in this show has really really bad hair.  The orange curly mop of No Min Woo- WHY!?!?!?!?! The curly cauliflower hair on Hwang Jung Eum makes her look like a little boy- no no no.  And making Park Ki Woong have blond hair makes him look pasty and sick, but they might have been going for that since he has some kinda eye problem.  That one song gets stuck in my head.  "You can touch!  Be my girl!" (meant to be yelled at the top of your lungs while you attempt the dance).  It is also just silly how everyone does this weird run around and hurts each other's feelings and just is silly.  However, despite the bad hair, they are hot men, and they have a beautiful bromance  that you way care about way more than the main romance.  Seriously, I just want those boys to be friends and love each other again before they let that dumb bitca (the other girl, not the main one) break the up.